1.
The light
______leaks
________out
into the hallway
to the bedrooms.
Night, blocked by the lamp,
turns the window into a mirror.
The electric typewriter
__hums
silently.
Two boys lie asleep
as the noise of the garage sale find
carries
and the hallway is
lit.
2.
He doesn't even
_remember
what the last fight was about.
Only
__his yelling
__her crying
A lamp crashing
__against the wall.
He was surprised when he threw it.
It had been years
__since he last hit her.
And although it was
__only a lamp and a wall,
that is just semantics.
3.
The washing machine has a magnet
from Mammoth Cave ( World's Largest Cavern!) covering the dent
where
the cinder block landed after coming through the window.
4.
He sits at his desk.
__the typewriter (with the sticky "v")
__bangs out
__the letters.
The light
__creeps
_______down
___________the hallway.
The typewriter
__is silent.
His eyes close.
__The sounds
of his wife's soft snoring
__drift to him.
He wants.
___Wants to go to her
____________and tell her
his hidden heart.
His eyes open.
The typewriter
____bangs.
He stops.
Fingers poised
5.
EXTERIOR:
If you were to look in his
window, say if you were walking
your dog, a great smiling Lab
whose only fault was a fondness
for nipping, you would see
him hunched over a brown relic,
looking as if each flaring synapse
caused rocketing pain.
6.
He works the night shift at the steel mill,
coming home covered in ebony grime.
The furnace electrodes spark and thunder
and the power of an angry Greek god is
captured to turn the steel
to a puddle.
But the man is not Zeus.
He is not
____Zeus
He is mortal
weak
and of flesh
and covered
in night.
7.
He stops again
the ribbon is fading
___each word
lighter than the last
8.
EXTERIOR:
All good things are asleep.
9.
He turns off
the typewriter
Neatly
stacks the pages
Shuts off
the lamp.
Makes his way
to his wife
The apology
sits unfinished.
His weight on the bed
wakes her. Turning her
head, she looks at him.
Silence
followed by a sigh
the way
two travelers talk
of everything
but home.
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